PEMBROKE - To honor her father’s military service, Caron Ahearn placed a statue of a U.S. Marine at his grave in Pembroke Center Cemetery shortly before Memorial Day.

The statue is gone now, removed by Ahearn after finding a flyer at her father’s grave, telling her that certain personal items are not permitted.

Most cemeteries have rules that restrict or limit the use of stuffed animals, statues, figurines, balloons, toys and other items left by family members to remember or honor a loved one.

But Ahearn and several others who regularly visit Pembroke Center Cemetery say they are confused by sporadic enforcement of the regulations and angry that cemetery workers removed items and left them piled behind a shed.

“For 27 years they’ve never enforced these rules. Now there’s a new superintendent. This is callous, terrible,” Ahearn said.

New cemetery foreman, Scott Ripley, a cemetery worker for 11 years, said the rules have been in place at least since he’s been there, even if enforcement was sometimes lax. He said crews started cleaning up over the July 4th holiday because of high winds and the possibility that small items would be tossed around. Personal items also interfere with grounds maintenance, he said.

Ripley said it’s not the first time that cemetery workers have had to clear away grave decorations, and that he’s been giving people a heads-up since May that it would happen. He left notices on the graves of families he knows.

“We went a little more this time... we’ve done this before,” he said. “It’s a memorial of your loved ones. Do you want to see beers cans and nips?”

Ahearn’s father, John, a former Pembroke selectman, died in March at age 80.

Liane Ahearn, Caron’s sister, posted a complaint about the cemetery workers’ actions on the Pembroke Connect Facebook page, a page for Pembroke residents. Her complaint triggered a number of responses, some supporting the families, others saying the cemetery has to have rules.

Elaine Crudup, who was at the cemetery last week, said two items suddenly went missing from her late son Jesse’s grave: a symbolic beer can that had been sitting there for 51/2 years and a red, white and blue pinwheel. “My son died of complications due to PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome) after serving in Iraq,” she said.

Joan Smith, of Pembroke, another visitor to the cemetery, said her shepherd’s hook plant went missing earlier this year and she was given someone else’s in return, but that she understood the need for the cemetery to clean up.